Snow Shelter/Igloo

[Nobody]

For my birthday this weekend, we built a snow shelter/igloo in the front yard since we had an unusually large amount of snow for this area. It took about 4-5 hours of solid work. Several neighborhood kids ended up joining in. My daughter was surprised how much warmer it was on the inside. You could fit six kids inside it comfortably.

My daughters Holly (left), Rowan (right), and Bella (a neighborhood kid) in the middle.

 

[WalterDavis]

That's pretty cool! The one time we tried that growing up it didn't work out so well, so it's good to see it went well for you:thumbup:

 

[Nobody]

A few more of my minions. Some had already thrown in the shovel by this point and gone home. We'll sleep good tonight.

 

[333rm]

Good work!

 

[Nobody]

More pics from tonight. My daughters and I were inside passing the camera around.

 

[Nobody]

I wanted to show the kids two things. 1) How easy it is to light a fire with a firesteel and natural materials, in this case some birch bark off one of the trees in the yard. 2) That unless you design your shelter with a properly designed ventilation hole, that even a tiny fire can smoke up your dwelling very quickly. We had fun! Knife content: This is a most excellent knife from Bryan Breedan. I'll post more pics in a few days. I'm enjoying using it too much right now and want to clean it up before I post pics of it.

 

[Watchful]

My heart stopped for second until I checked your location! A guy about two streets down from me built one almost exactly like yours with his two daughters, and his house looks a little like yours. I thought he was you for a few seconds there.

I appreciate you supplying one element that few people ever do: a time estimate. I've found that some of the best snow shelter accounts never note the time it took.

4-5 hours sounds right on the money. We should remember this before we're freezing to death and elect to build a shelter. Lots of folks could be dead by then!

Congrats on a simple and elegant design...and an very good write up!

 

[Ravaillac]

I did build a small quinze this week-end. Big enough to curl inside relatively comfortably. Should post pictures some day.
Did start with snow claw and switched half-way for a full size household snowshovel.

It did take me about 2-3h to stack snow and 1-2h to dig it. About 4-5h all-round. I would probably be quicker if I had to do it again.
The more difficult part is stacking a lot of snow.
For hollowing it I did wear my http://www.hilleberg.com/2006%20Products/NewBivanorak.htm . I allowed me to do it while staying completly dry. It would have been a lot more complicated to stay dry.

In the wild I would only have the snow claw (although I'll think about carrying some better snow shovel) but I would probably somewhat compensate by improving my technique. Notably I would use more "filler" (back pack, boughs...). More filler helps both building the stack and hollowing it.
I always carry the bivanorak both as bivy and emergency shelter.